Right now I’m trying to get ~300g/protein and ~250g complex carbs per day. The carbs are no problem; oatmeal and brown rice are very cheap.
The problem is the protein. A 3 lb bag of 6 chicken breasts lasts me a day and costs ~$7.50. I know that’s not really that expensive when you consider how much people spend eating out and such, but its still causing some headaches at home w/ the wife who is worried about money.
I’ve done some math and Great Value (wal-mart brand) frozen chicken breasts looks to be about the cheapest lean protein I’ve found, with ground beef being 2nd and not as lean anyway.
Is there something I’ve missed, like goat tongue?? Can I get 50g protein/meal cheaper some other way?
All-time cheapest protein source: LIVER at 2 bucks per pound! I get it from the Asian Market down the block, but it’s cheap in grocery stores too.
The other innards they sell down the block are cheap as hell too: heart, kidney, tongue. I buy hearts and kidneys sometimes, but not as often as I buy liver.
I also go to Costco and buy a shitload of their Kirkland brand canned chicken, canned salmon, pre-packaged frozen salmon fillets, shrimp, etc.
But liver still is the cheapest source I’ve ever seen! Most people don’t like or actually HATE it.
Go to your grocery store/meat market and buy Eye of Round beef and have the butcher there trim off all the fat and ground it up for you. This is really very lean ground beef at about 3-5grams fat per 4oz/and about 30-35grams protein per 4oz.
[quote]bradmacmillan wrote:
Go to your grocery store/meat market and buy Eye of Round beef and have the butcher there trim off all the fat and ground it up for you. This is really very lean ground beef at about 3-5grams fat per 4oz/and about 30-35grams protein per 4oz.[/quote]
[quote]nschneid wrote:
Right now I’m trying to get ~300g/protein and ~250g complex carbs per day. The carbs are no problem; oatmeal and brown rice are very cheap.
The problem is the protein. A 3 lb bag of 6 chicken breasts lasts me a day and costs ~$7.50. I know that’s not really that expensive when you consider how much people spend eating out and such, but its still causing some headaches at home w/ the wife who is worried about money.
I’ve done some math and Great Value (wal-mart brand) frozen chicken breasts looks to be about the cheapest lean protein I’ve found, with ground beef being 2nd and not as lean anyway.
Is there something I’ve missed, like goat tongue?? Can I get 50g protein/meal cheaper some other way?[/quote]
3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast (which is what that better be for that price) is over 400 grams of protein.
Bricknyce
Yes is it fairly cheap, at my grocery store in Atlantic Canada it cost between $8-10 per kg, that’s about $3.6 to $5 per lb of meat. It’s a bit more expensive that say extra lean ground beef but it’s much leaner. Extra lean ground beef usually has about 10g fat per 4oz, eye of round 5g fat per 4oz
Whole pork shoulder… I see it on sale for 99 cents a pound, sometimes as cheap as 69 cents a pound. Yeah there’s a big ol’ bone in there, and a thick pad of fat on the outside (some people like to eat it - chicharron or ‘pork cracklins’ but I don’t like it) but it’s still a pretty good deal for meat.
Here’s how you cook it…
Marinate overnight in a about a half cup olive oil, with an entire bulb of chopped garlic, a handful of oregano, healthy amount of black pepper and salt. Some people like to make a bunch of stabs in the meat and insert a clove of garlic.
Next day, preheat oven to 400. Place marinated shoulder in large and deep foil-lined pan (foil for easy clean up) Roast for one hour at 400, then cover pan with foil tent and lower heat to 250. Continue to cook for 4 to 8 hours more (depending on shoulder size… some are huge). It’s almost impossible to overcook shoulder at this temperature, and a long cooking time means the meat will pull apart easily. An hour per pound at 250 degrees seems right. Once it cools a bit, you can easily pull the shoulder apart, discarding the bones and fat, leaving you with a large quantity of slow-cooked pork.
For leftovers, make a pork chili. Or saute some onions and garlic in a frying pan, then add pork chunks and fry up.